After years of playing into the mass-affluence trend by trying to get their consumers to trade up to pricier fare, McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King are all deploying the 99¢ price point as a key marketing tactic going into a year when consumers' budgets are expected to be stretched thin. But it's a ploy that has some franchisees worrying about value customers eating their profits. "It's a classic case of trying to defend market share and hoping that you can squeeze out a couple more visits from customers," says John Moore, an ex-Starbucks marketer who blogs at brandautopsy.com. …

Cisco Systems has been designing a new kind of operating system it calls Eos--for entertainment operating system-that includes software companies can use to build online communities that cater to people who watch certain television shows or are attracted to certain lifestyles. The technology, Cisco executives say, will monitor consumers as they interact on the communities with each other and with media, eventually offering recommendations for other content from across the Web. Eos will also target advertising to community members based on their activities. It has convinced two online communities--run by the National Hockey League and auto-racing organization Nascar--to try …

Acting Consumer Product Safety Commission chief Nancy Nord says the agency will begin to place full-time staff at some of the nation's busiest ports, such as Seattle, to stop suspect toy imports and identify potential hazards before they hit the market. Nord also says she is seeking to bolster the agency's "early warning" detection system for children's products, such as cribs, bassinets and play yards. The goal is to foster better agency communication and collaboration, as well as to "connect the dots" among safety complaints, allowing the CPSC to detect patterns in potential hazards as they emerge. …

The Environmental Protection Agency --in partnership with 11 retailers, manufacturers and service providers--will introduce a public education campaign today aimed at getting consumers to recycle some of the estimated 150 million cell phones that are taken out of service each year. Eleven companies--AT&T, Best Buy, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Office Depot, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Staples and T-Mobile--are partners in the campaign. Each has promised to collect phones and hold recycling events (and several already do so). Environmental groups applaud the program but--perhaps unsurprisingly--they want the E.P.A. to regulate as well as cajole. "Recycle Your Cellphone. It's an …

Starting this year, McDonald's nearly 14,000 U.S. locations will install coffee bars with "baristas" serving cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and the Frappe, similar to Starbucks' ice-blended Frappuccino. Hailing from very different corners of the restaurant world, the chains have gradually encroached on each other's turf. The growing overlap shows how convenience has become the dominant force shaping the food-service industry. Consumers who are unwilling to cross the street to get coffee have pushed all food purveyors to adapt the strategies of fast-food chains. It also shows how the chains' efforts to adapt have had drastically different results on their …

It is almost impossible to read or see an interview with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in which he doesn't discuss "the customer experience." When he appeared on Charlie Rose's talk show recently to tout Amazon's new e-book device, the Kindle, Rose asked the CEO an open-ended question about how he spent his time. Bezos responded with a soliloquy about his "obsession" with customers. "The reason I'm so obsessed with these drivers of the customer experience is that I believe that the success we have had over the past 12 years has been driven exclusively by that customer experience," …

Anheuser-Busch is looking to take advantage of the planned merger of Miller and Coors by ramping up spending on its four core brands--Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob and Michelob Ultra--in an attempt to take back market share. The No. 1 U.S. brewer--which holds an approximately 49% share of the market--stumbled last year as it absorbed dozens of new import and craft brands into its wholesaler network. But A-B says it has a new marketing model--led by new vice president of marketing Dave Peacock--sorted out just in time to exploit similar havoc for its competitor if and when the …